We’ve heard it forever: The customer is always right. Of course, I’ve blogged that it’s of paramount importance to keep customers. However, I should have noted that while it is indeed very important, the customer isn’t always right, or even good for business.
Heightened by the slowdown in sales this summer, every dealership team should be putting extra emphasis on customer retention and satisfaction. But in doing so, no one should be blind to the fact that there are times when good business dictates walking away from a customer.
Here’s something worth considering:
Every dealership has mostly good customers — and a few “others.” Truth is, when the best attempts have been made to address a customer’s complaints and the customer still isn’t happy, it’s natural to go the extra mile by spending more time with the person, perhaps giving free products, additional service and interaction. When that still doesn’t get it done, it’s no longer working with a customer; you have a serial complainer on your hands.
That realization is the signal to say: “We’ve done all, plus more, that we can do, so perhaps it’s best we no longer do business.”
It’s just good business. To be pragmatic, most dealers have limited resources to add extra work hours, products or services. It’s clearly not good business to use the resources you have on customers who never seem satisfied. After all, customers who are always there but repeatedly cause problems aren’t loyal; they are abusers.
Moreover, every dealership team member is an important part of the business equation. The dealership’s goal is satisfied customers, of course. Everyone on the team should understand and live by that philosophy. However, believing the customer is always right above all else means siding with customers over employees by default. Experts says that’s actually destructive to the business.
In his book Happy Hour is 9 to 5, Alexander Kjerulf forwards the idea that happy employees always lead to the best possible customer service. “Believing the customer is always right is a subconscious way of favoring the customer over the employee, and that leads to resentment among employees,” Kjerulf says. “When managers put the employees first, the employees will then put the customers first. Put employees first and they will be happy at work.”
Put another way, backing up employees whenever possible is good leadership. Respect their judgments and views, Kjerulf contends, and when faced with siding with the employee or a customer, choose the employee.
To be clear, no one is suggesting that anyone quickly give up trying to resolve a customer’s complaint. But be aware that a customer who consistently brings problems triggers a different consideration. In the larger business picture, it’s worth asking if repeatedly trying to please a customer who can’t be satisfied a good business decision.
Cutting ties with such customers does have another benefit, according to Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He contends that unhappy customers are a great source of learning what might be done differently to avoid a repeat problem. That said, it’s still best to walk away from that customer.
